


The Tengu

by Ano



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/M, Tengu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27915265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ano/pseuds/Ano
Summary: Rose considered herself a fairly logical and down-to-earth person; quick to question anything that seemed potentially strange or mystical with having a reasonable explanation.But nothing could explain the winged man clad in monk's robes who stood in her kitchen.
Relationships: Dezel & Rose (Tales of Zestiria), Dezel/Rose (Tales of Zestiria)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	The Tengu

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings, all! Just a small heads up, this is my first fanfic in well over a decade, and it was a bit of a process to put together. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Special thanks to Straya for being so kind as to beta-read for me!

Rose considered herself a fairly logical and down-to-earth person; quick to question anything that seemed potentially strange or mystical with having a reasonable explanation. 

When she saw that an old house on temple grounds had been for sale at an extremely reduced price, the logical conclusion was to look into purchasing it. It was in surprisingly great condition when she viewed it; close enough to the town and the university, yet also spacious and secluded. If things went well, maybe she could look into making it a share home, renting out rooms to pay off her tuition.

She had inquired about the reduced price, and the realtor explained that past attempts to move in were quickly abandoned. There were rumors the place was haunted. Rose, being the logical person she considered herself to be, simply laughed it off. There was no way she could resist a potential investment such as this.

So of course, after seeing her friends off after an overnight housewarming party in her new home, she did not exactly anticipate finding a winged man standing in the middle of her kitchen. He was dressed in robes of dark green, black and gold, and a bird-like mask strapped atop white locks.that shrouded his face. Her footsteps faltered and he turned, his motions stiff and awkward, and when she didn’t immediately react, he seemed to take that as a sign to start speaking, his hands coming up almost hesitantly.

“Okay, I need you to not freak out and listen to me-”

Rose absolutely ignored that request and began to scream for help. After all, how else was she supposed to react to the stranger that was absolutely not supposed to be in her kitchen? 

She grabbed the nearest loose object: a broom, and swung fiercely. The man cursed and ducked back, surprisingly quick to react for someone whose hair hung so haphazardly in his face. Hoping it was luck, Rose adjusted her grip and swung the broom back around the other way. Once again, the bristles only met with air.

“Who are you? How did you get in my house?” She didn’t pause in her attacks to hear his answer, furiously trying to drive him towards the nearest exit. She watched him pull his lips back in a snarl as he dodged yet another swing and vaguely made note of his strangely sharp teeth. 

“Would you please just listen- FUCK!” 

All at once, he was in front of her, his hand gripping the handle of the broom as he forcefully shoved her back. The back of her knees hit smooth wood and suddenly she dropped into the seat of one of her kitchen chairs, forced to stay put by the man still holding onto the makeshift weapon she clutched. He loomed over her, seeming to surround her with his presence, and Rose belatedly realized that the weird costume wings she’d noted before had now spread around either side of her, further caging her in her seat.

“This is going to take some time to explain,” the man said after a moment, “and it’s going to sound absolutely batshit insane, but I need you to hear me out. Do you understand?”

Rose could only stare up at him numbly, her head throbbing from the mix of adrenaline and hangover..

“Rose. The broom pressed into her palms just a bit harder and his breath fanned across her face. She blinked a few times as she processed what he just said, her brows pinching together in confusion.

“How do you know my name?”

The man paused, exhaling through his nose as his head dipped. He muttered something that sounded a lot like a string of curses under his breath before turning back to face her fully.

“I will get to that if you give me a chance to explain, but I need you to listen to me. Do you understand? I need you to answer me.”

Rose nodded numbly, but he repeated her name firmly, and she replied with a small voice: "Yes." 

Internally, Rose was still panicking, but she stayed put as the winged man slowly, hesitantly, drew back releasing the broom. It took a moment for her to process that he had let her keep her only means of defense, which a part of her sort of appreciated, but he was still tense and on guard, seeming ready for her to hit him again. She watched his wings as they drew away from her periphery, neatly tucking themselves behind his back. 

"Well I suppose we should start with the basic stuff first," he grumbled. Crossing his arms over his broad chest, the man glared at her through shaggy white locks. "First things first, do you know what I am?'

"... cosplaying?" 

He stared. "What is that?" he asked, and for some reason, Rose felt a bit stupid. 

"An angel," she corrected, and this time the man snorted, the corners of his mouth tugging into a handsome grin despite revealing wickedly sharp looking teeth. 

"Flattering I suppose, but think smaller. You're on temple grounds after all."

Her brows furrowed in confusion as she glanced around the mess of a kitchen. There were some leftover soju bottles from the night before, and her head throbbed at the sight. She really wasn't in the best state of mind for this, she was half certain she was still dreaming. How else could she explain the situation? The man before her was dressed quite traditionally, akin to warrior monk robes she’d seen at local festivals and in museums. He had white hair, tan skin and tawny wings that she still couldn't believe moved on their own.

"No way…" Her head snapped up, "are you supposed to be a tengu?"

This was probably the wrong answer as well, as the man bristled, his lips curling into a snarl. "What do you mean by 'supposed to be'?" He demanded. Rose reflexively raised the broom again.

"I'm saying you look a fair bit different from the depictions!" Boy, that had meant to sound angrier, but her voice had pitched up in her panic. To her luck, her response caused the man to pause thoughtfully, and whatever argument lay on his parted lips died as he shut his mouth.

"I suppose that's fair," he muttered. "Regardless, I am indeed Tengu, and the one who guards this temple… or what's left of it."

Those last words came out so bitter and sad, and for a moment, Rose felt a pang of guilt. "Hey…"

"Speaking of the temple," the irritation in his voice had returned, "imagine my confusion when some loud, obnoxious woman decides to move herself in and make a mess of the place."

Any feelings of sympathy Rose had been feeling quickly withered away. "Excuse me?" She was standing before she even realized it. "I bought this place fair and square! This place has been abandoned for decades! I didn’t sign on for a squatter!"

"I told you, brat. This temple is my domain! I've guarded this place for longer than you've been alive."

“And somehow, conveniently, you waited to show your gaudy costumed self to me days after I move in? What is this, some sort of LARP?”

“What does that even mean?”

“LIVE ACTION ROLE PLAY!”

It was at this point Rose stopped, realizing what a stupid direction this argument had gone, and the man in front of her, seemed to have decided the same, because he simply stared, seeming to struggle to form any sort of response to her. The two stood there, hackles still raised and uncertain on how to proceed. Rose exhaled through her nose and decided to humor him first.

"Okay… let's say you are a tengu-" 

"I am-" he interrupted, but Rose brought up a hand to silence him, giving him a pointed look.

Her hand dropped to her side. "What I want to know is why you've been hiding for so long." 

"I wasn't exactly hiding," he said with a small shrug of his shoulders. "You simply couldn't see me until now."

He then paused, seeming to study her face for a moment. "You don't believe that either."

"Not for a second."

Rose watched as he drew back with a tired sigh, his head tilting to stare at the ceiling in resignation. 

"Fine," he muttered, "let's move on. We need to talk about the stupid stunt you and your friends pulled last night." He turned away before Rose had a chance to react, making his way towards the sliding doors that led to the engawa outside. 

Rose bristled, raising the broom as she tailed his retreating form. "Were you spying on us?" Her voice came out more shrill than she had wanted. The man paid her no mind, simply sliding the door open and stepping through the threshold without so much as a glance over his boa-clad shoulder.

"If by 'spying', you mean: 'helplessly watching three drunk morons make a mess of my store room', then yes." 

As he spoke, he stepped off the end of the porch, stretching his wings as if to bask in the morning sun. The tawny and russet feathers trembled as they extended, settling after a few experimental flaps that kicked up the dirt around him. The longer Rose watched, the more real the wings seemed to be. They moved with more fluidity than any costumed wings ever could, but she still struggled to believe any of this situation was real.

Much to her confusion, the man started a leisurely walk across the grounds. Brows pinched together, Rose called after him: "You're not going to fly there?"

He wasn't facing her, but she definitely heard a scoff. "Why would I? It's close enough." 

She clicked her tongue and followed him off the engawa. "Of course," she muttered as she glared a hole into his back, "how convenient that a strange man just happens to appear, claiming to be a tengu, but can't even bring himself to do the simplest thing to prove that he is, indeed, a tengu." 

Rose felt a small bubbling of smug satisfaction watching the man stiffen. A small smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth. He was painfully easy to read, she mused, watching his hands ball into fists at his side. 

"And now you're telling me to trust you enough to follow you inside a creepy store room when you haven't so much as told me your name? Do you do this with all your dates?" She kept her voice light and flippant as she eyed him with an air of scrutiny.

"Oh, did I not give you my name?" He turned and looked over his shoulder, pointed teeth bared in a sneer as he turned to face her fully. "I suppose the opportunity passed when I started getting beaten with a broom."

This time, he didn't give her a chance to retort. His wings were suddenly outstretched, casting a shadow across the engawa. For a brief moment, his hair was blown away from his face, revealing piercing green eyes as he glared at her.

"You want proof?" he seethed. "Fine."

The wings came down sharply, the resulting gust of wind kicking up sand and dirt that struck Rose's face and arms. Her eyes screwed shut and she cursed, spitting and wiping at her face to clear her vision, but when the finally managed to focus again, he was gone. 

Rose stared out at the now empty yard in confused silence until a large shadow on the ground caught her attention. She managed to crane her neck up in time to see the man's winged silhouette coast and land carefully on the roof. His wings flapped a few times, seeming to test if his weight would hold where he stood, before settling behind his back. He turned to look in her direction, crossing his arms in a silent challenge as he quietly, expectantly waited for her to follow.

Rose decided she was too hung over to be properly amazed.

Quietly, she trudged towards the store room, making an effort to avoid eye contact. She could feel his gaze boring a hole through her head, which honestly, despite him proving he could fly, did not make her any more relaxed about the situation. Nothing made any sense to her right then, and she was half expecting that she was dreaming at this point. Her brain felt like it had checked out of the situation, which is why she estimated she was feeling a lot calmer than she probably should, given the circumstances.

As she stepped up to the door, there was a movement of air, and Rose turned to see the man casually land beside her. His feet hit the ground with more force than she anticipated; far less delicate than she ever expected any winged being to be. Quietly, he stepped towards the doorway, but then stopped, pausing in front of the door as he turned to her.

"It's Dezel."

Rose simply stared at him in exhausted confusion. 

"My name," he quietly clarified as he looked away, "you asked for it earlier."

"Dezel," Rose repeated the name quietly. That was a new one. 

She watched him give a small nod in affirmation before turning to the old wooden door and pushing it open. "I'm fairly certain you and your friends left it here last night. Feel free to hold onto the broom, we’ll probably need it later anyway.” He muttered something under his breath after, but Rose only caught the word “mess”. 

The inside of the building was surprisingly well lit, with old windows built into the roof bringing light from the morning sun inside. Two rows of dusty wooden shelves stretched the length of the interior from front to back. Dezel quietly walked between the two, his head occasionally turning to focus on some long untouched artifact before continuing on. Rose paused to look back at the still open door before following him. 

Dezel reached the end of the aisle and crouched down to pick something up. He straightened again, lazily inspecting the empty bottle of peach soju. 

"How much do you remember about last night?" Dezel asked. Rose's attention quickly snapped from the bottle to his face. "I want to know where I should start explaining."

Rose frowned. "Last night…" She paused, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, "Alisha and Edna came to visit and help me unpack. We ordered in." 

She heard Dezel let out a small huff before holding out the bottle for her to take. "So you got drunk and started exploring. What happened next?"

Now holding the empty bottle, Rose worked to recall the blur of events that transpired the night before. The residual smell hit her nostrils and she could suddenly see Edna's sly grin and Alisha's sweet, flushed face. Alisha had been telling Rose about the assistant professor she had finally asked out for coffee. Rose got to work on finishing that peach soju then. 

"I got restless and suggested we explore the grounds…" she trailed off, her brows creasing in the middle of her forehead as things got harder to remember. Dezel had turned away and started looking through the shelves, seeming intent on finding something. "I remember we went to the altar for a bit."

"That you did," Dezel muttered. He moved to the next section of artifacts. "You made a real racket, but that seems to be normal for you."

"Oh, is that where you sleep?" The comment had come out snarkier than intended, and Dezel turned to give her a warning look. She shrunk back, hands raised as apologetically as one could while holding a bottle and a broom. "I'm sorry, it's been a rough morning."

"For both of us," he agreed as he looked away, back to the shelves. "Do you remember coming in here?"

"I mean…" Rose gave a shrug, "yeah. We wanted to see if there was any neat stuff. I have a friend who is very into history and archaeology, and I thought it would be cool to see if there was anything."

"Yeah," he sounded distracted. "What else?"

Rose paused, "Wait, are you looking for something?" 

He continued searching the shelves without turning to look her way. "That would be correct- ugh," he lifted an old, ornate box; surprisingly free of dust, and moved it to another shelf. "You and your friends made a mess of things last night."

Rose scanned the room with a frown. Other than the soju bottle, nothing really looked amiss. "I... think our definitions of ‘mess’ might be different…”

That statement apparently earned her a scoff. Rose turned back as Dezel straightened back to his full height, turning to look at her with stern green eyes.

“Think,” he bit out, his pointed teeth catching her eye as he emphasized the word with a snarl. “You and your idiot friends goofed around in here. There was a scroll you read off of-”

"A scroll?" Rose stared back at Dezel, incredulous. "Why, what's so special about finding…"

She trailed off. Dezel was looking at her expectantly, but she was too caught up in her own thoughts. There had been a scroll. Edna had been poring over it. 

"Hey Rose, apparently this temple comes with its very own guardian." Her eyes tore away from the scroll as she spoke. Despite being the smallest, Edna was inexplicably the best of the group when it came to holding her liquor, and tonight was no exception. She was able to act the most sober of the three, but was also the most likely to start some trouble. "If we do this ceremony, we could get you a big bird boyfriend. Want to do it?"

Rose, who had been mid-swig, swallowed a little too hard, wincing as the pain slowly crawled down her esophagus. She pulled the now empty peach soju bottle from her lips and declared:

"Fuck YEAH I do!"

"Rose?"

She realized she was staring at him again; Edna's words echoed all too loudly in her head as she peeked at a wing tucked behind his shoulder.

"The scroll… what was in it exactly?"

Dezel stared at her with dawning realization. "You remembered something." It was an accusation. Rose flinched and looked away.

"N-no! I'm just wondering what the contents are! You know, because you seem so desperate to find it."

Dezel gave her a pointed look and crossed his arms. "It's a ceremony to bind the head of the temple with the guardian as a means of helping connect the priest to the spiritual world." He paused and shifted his weight between his feet uncomfortably, his face stern. "The two become lifelong partners as they serve the needs of those who come to the temple."

Rose let out a small scoff, “that sounds an awful lot like marriage.”

Despite her impeccable hungover wit, Dezel paused at her remark, frowning. 

“I suppose in a sense, it kind of is.”

Rose felt the blood drain from her face.

-

Alisha, Edna and Rose had done a hurried and half-assed setup for the ritual in the warehouse, even going so far as throwing a dusty white cloth over her head to act as some sort of makeshift bridal garb. Rose swayed back and forth, kneeling at Edna's instruction.

"This seems straightforward enough," Edna muttered to herself with a shrug. Rose was half-listening, focusing instead on the building pressure in her sinuses caused by her dusty veil. Finally, she sneezed. Edna ignored it without so much as a ‘gesundheit’ and began to recite what was written on the scroll.

“You alright under there?” Alisha was to her right, her smile tinged with a mix of amusement and mild concern. In her hands were two freshly opened bottles of beer; one of which was gently placed before her. Rose smiled, then gave a small shrug as she picked it up.

“I’m fine. Honestly, as silly as all this is, it’s kind of fun. I bet Sorey would love to excavate this place.”

Alisha smiled back. “I think so too,” she replied softly. 

“Hey, high priestess. Shut up!” Edna snapped. 

“Yes, Ma’am!”

-

“Uhh…”

That’s about as articulate as Rose could manage to make herself at this point. It felt like her entire thought process had come to a screeching halt. Dezel was still standing there, positively looming over her as he waited. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

“Whu...what would someone such as yourself possibly want with something like that?” Her laugh was strained. 

“The sooner I find it,” Dezel explained flatly, “the sooner I can look for any sort of way to annul the contract.”

He took a step back from her, finally turning away to continue his search, leaving Rose standing there, mouth hung open. 

"Annul?" Rose hurriedly put down her weapons and stumbled after his retreating figure. He had rounded the end of the shelf and went to examine the other side, now crouched down and rifling through more old boxes. For a moment, Rose watched on, worry written on her face as she gripped the shelf. "Um, Dezel? What exactly is there to annul, theoretically speaking?" she asked, voice small. 

He didn't turn to her, still engrossed in his search, but his words were biting. "Some drunk idiots decided to bind me to the human currently residing in this house." 

Rose shrunk back, partially hiding herself behind the old wood. "Doesn't a ceremony like that require a priest or something for it to work?" she asked. "And to maybe not be done in a storage room?"

He closed the wooden box he had been inspecting with a sharp snap, causing Rose to flinch back further. "Yeah, you'd think that would be the case, but apparently not!" he snapped, exasperated. He placed the box back in its spot with a huff. "Honestly, with how careless you are with creating contracts like this, it's a miracle you're still in one piece."

Now it was Rose's turn to get angry. "Careless?" She seethed. Dezel turned to look at her now, his shrouded eyes filled with a mix of surprise and indignant irritation, which Rose was all the more ready to challenge. "You mean to tell me that you, a spirit who is invisible to humans, lives in a temple with humans, and then can't be bothered to do a better job putting binding documents in a safer place… but I'm careless?!"

"Nobody was supposed to move in!" he shouted back furiously, "let alone make a contract with me within two days of doing so!"

"What, you were just going to hog this place all to yourself? What did you intend to do, try and get rid of me?"

Dezel at least had the decency to look sheepish as he replied: "The plan was to scare you away like the others."

Rose gasped loudly. "The hauntings they were talking about … that was you, wasn't it?" 

He didn't reply at first, his tanned skin taking on a red tinge around his cheeks. "... I'm not usually seen by humans, and it's been the easiest way to ensure this place is left alone…" He frowned. "Well until you showed up," he added quietly. Rose gave him a haughty smirk.

"Yeah, you're definitely not going to be able to scare me off so easily," she goaded.

Though she had hoped for a different reaction; something irritated, or maybe even mildly amused, Dezel sat there watching her, his expression oddly stern. Her grin dropped a bit, as she asked: "What? What's with that look?"

"Rose…" He hesitated, his hand coming up to frustratedly comb his fingers through his hair, "I'm still not sure how you did it, but to put it bluntly, you appointed yourself the high priestess of this temple."

Rose let out a small snort of amusement. "So? It's not like anyone visits here. It's been abandoned for ages!" 

"You're half right," Dezel said as he finally stood up straight again, watching her with a stern expression, "Humans don't visit anymore. That doesn’t mean this temple isn’t visited by others." 

“Others," Rose repeated, utterly confused. 

"Right, I keep forgetting I have to spell everything out for you," he quipped. Rose bristled yet again in response to his sharp tongue, but was interrupted before she could do so much as open her mouth.

"Rose, that contract you made... I'm not just tied to the human world. It works both ways. I'm not the only one that is visible to you now. "

Rose stared long and hard at him, her brows knitted together. A small chuckle escaped her lips. "What, you mean there's more tengu like you?"

"Not just tengu. Yokai."

Rose didn't exactly know how to respond to that. After staring up at him for a long, hard moment, she let out a tired breath and turned. "The scroll was red and gold, right?"

From over her shoulder, she heard an exasperated huff. "You're oddly calm about all this."

"I'm hungover and used all my energy freaking out about a man breaking into my house," Rose snipped back. "I promise, you will see me panic later."

After a moment, she heard him acknowledge her with a short 'hmph', and together, the two started hunting.

-

They recovered it soon enough, finding it hidden within the discarded cloth that had been Rose's makeshift veil. It was a really ornate thing compared to the other scrolls she had seen, and immediately the thought of her friend Sorey came to mind. 

If only he knew what a mess she was in.

They were in her kitchen again -Dezel had insisted, muttering something about dehydration. He was boiling water for tea, and didn't seem all that impressed by her mismatched mugs she had managed to unpack the day prior. 

"I don't recall having any loose leaf tea…" she mused aloud as she watched him. Seeing a winged man in full warrior monk attire act so domestic… he seemed far less scary now. His robes, though clearly showing signs of wear, were well maintained

"This is from the store room," he responded, keeping his focus on the little box he was measuring out leaves from. "It'll help with your hangover."

Rose hummed, watching him work a moment longer before her eyes flit back to the table where the scroll innocently sat. She frowned, reaching out and rolling it back and forth with a fingertip.

She was still struggling to really process that a self-proclaimed tengu was making tea for her. She was also struggling to process that he had flown not half an hour ago. She watched him now, quietly observing the way his tucked wings subtly shifted as he worked. He had carefully set aside his boa and mask and tied back his sleeves as he worked. 

The kettle was off the heat before it whistled and the water poured into the awaiting mugs with the loose leaves. Muttering something about pulling out the tea set later, he set the mug on the table in front of her, before instructing: "Give it a few minutes to steep," before he seated himself across from her. The scroll was immediately in his hands, unfurled and draped across the table as he began to quietly read. From Rose's perspective, his hair made it impossible to see his eyes, which, despite everything, felt humorous to her. She resisted a chuckle and quickly returned her gaze to her tea. After a moment she took a tentative sip, reveling in the subtle flavor and the way it warmed her stomach. 

"So out of curiosity…" Rose peered back up at him, "Seeing as you're contractually my new partner or whatever, did the contract make you visible to only me?"

"That I'm not sure of yet," he admitted, not bothering to pause in his reading. "The temple grounds are big enough though, when you undoubtedly decide to bring your friends over again to make trouble, I'll stay out of your hair."

Rose scowled at him, but he paid no mind and continued reading. "You're oddly attached to this place," she quipped. Apparently she wanted to pick another fight, but Dezel didn't react.

"That's because I am," he said, his voice still infuriatingly calm.

"What?"

"Attached."

Rose's scowl deepened.

"Could you maybe elaborate?"

"I'm spiritually attached to this place, Rose. I'm its guardian. So long as it's expected of me, I'm not physically capable of leaving the temple grounds."

Rose's brow pinched as she regarded him from across the table. Bringing the mug to her lips, she took a long, audible sip of tea.

"Was that in a contract too?" she asked over the rim of her mug. Dezel nodded minutely, his finger still tracing the page. She hummed thoughtfully and sipped again. 

"You seem to have signed some shitty contracts."

Dezel made a sound; Rose couldn't tell if it was a scoff or a heavily stifled laugh.

"Apparently so do you," he sniped back as he finally looked up at her with a sardonic, jagged-toothed smirk. "You seemed so eager to get yourself a 'hot bird boyfriend'..."

Rose choked on her tea. Her face burned, eyes going wide in horror. "You-" she stammered. , "How did you-"

"I was there." He shrugged flippantly. "Basically right beside you, until I realized your makeshift ceremony was actually working."

"Oh gods…" She wished she could drown herself in her mug of tea. "So, what… we're, uh, housemates until we can find a way to break the contract or something?" 

"That's not the only issue." His expression became serious again, "I need to confirm for myself… but if I'm not mistaken, the contract recognizes you: the technical owner right now, as the high priest of the temple."

Dezel then paused, his expression now one of distaste. "If you really have become the high priestess, that'll be an even bigger pain in my side."

Rose opened her mouth to snap at him, but paused as a strange sound reached her ears. It sounded almost like the chime of the bells at the temple, but they sounded so eerily clear, as if she was standing directly under them. Looking back at Dezel, she found him watching her carefully.

"Dezel," her brows pinched, and in response, his lopsided smirk returned, lips pulling back to reveal those strangely sharp teeth.

"Ah, perfect timing." He slowly stood, leaving the scroll open on the table. "We have a visitor. You should come greet them."

"What…" Rose trailed off as Dezel stepped away, walking back out to the engawa without a second glance. She looked back down at her mug, hesitating for a moment before standing up herself and following after him. She padded across the room, approaching where Dezel now stood quietly, and as she did, she realized something was off about the yard, almost as if something about the landscape changed. No, that wasn't right. Something was there, something big, and Dezel was talking to it.

“It’s good to see you again, Rokuro.”

Standing slightly behind him on the engawa, Rose craned her neck up for the second time that day, her gaze following the long serpentine neck of glistening onyx scales up to golden eyes, antlered horns, and a long, doglike snout. 

“It’s-” Rose stammered to form the words, her mouth going dry. “Dezel, that’s a-”

“A dragon, yes,” he shifted his weight as he turned to look at her over his shoulder, his green eyes looking wickedly mischievous through his hair. He grinned. “Come now, new high priestess. We have work to do.”


End file.
